DoNet

Abstract

With the giant steps in technology and the massive strides in hard- ware, software and communication it is not in the very distant future that complete households will be entirely networked as a de facto standard. In this work we examine current research trends and illustrate our work in the area of domotics where personalization, semantics and agent technology come together. We look at the different aspects of identification, interconnectivity, virtual representation, user interfaces and context, and develop a home system oriented ontology in OWL. This ontology provides the ability to describe events, states, information, agents, items, locations, operational ECA rules, user preferences and their relations. We also propose an agent based framework and abstraction and reasoning mechanisms to pennit modular and rapid development of home control and automation components. A web based interface provides suggestions, information and ontology access, while a puzzle based graphical user interface, provides simplified rule construction capabilities. The ever changing nature of the home, places the user in a position where he needs to be involved and become, through DoNet, a part of an ongoing home system optimization process.